For some reason, I set the alarm an hour earlier than I needed today and showed up at the Donner Lake ramp way to early. It didn’t take me long to also discover it was a lot colder than the days before. Okay enough complaining. We got the boat in the water and everything ready to go. Our clients showed up and off we went in search of Kokanee and maybe even a Mack or two. We were almost up to Loch Leven Lodge and found some nice schools of fish around 50 feet deep. We dropped in a Sep’s Watermelon Strike Master with a pink Uncle Larry’s spinner tipped with pink Pautzke’s Fire Corn behind a Black Shark Cannonball weight. The next setup we dropped in was a Shasta Tackle pink Melon Sling Blade with a Rocky Mountain Tackle pink Plankton spinner also tipped with Pink Pautzke Fire Corn. The next step was going to be to drop a couple bigger baits down for Mackinaw, however, the Kokanee didn’t seem to want to give us a break. It was fast action for the first hour with bright Donner Lake Kokanee. We finely managed to get some bigger bait’s down but the Mackinaw bite wasn’t happening for us today. After a slower spell that lasted about an hour the bite picked up again and we netted a few more and called it a day. After a chilly morning on Donner it turned out to be a nice day with some nice Kokanee. The Kokanee at Donner this year are by no means big, they and sure nice bright clean and good eating fish.

Our son-in-law Steve Brown took the Tight Lines boat out to target some Donner Lake Kokanee. Gary Tonnesen of Antelope along with Dan Bacher of the Fish Sniffer joined Steve. They started fishing in front of Loch Leven Lodge. They quickly found action down 50 feet on a Sep’s Watermelon Strike Master dodger and a Uncle Larry’s Pink Tiger tipped with Pink Pautzke Fire Corn. Steve also ran one heavier G-Loomis STR 1063 C-1 rod down a little deeper in an effort to pick up a big Lake Trout (Mackinaw). They did end up with one, however, it was in the 3-pound range. The Mackinaw fell for a Denis Pierce tandem fly in a Kokanee pattern with Pautzke Krill added. Other productive lures for Steve were Rocky Mountain Plankton series spinners and Tsunami dodgers, Shasta Tackle Glow Sling Blades

The Kokanee are not trophy size. On this day they averaged 11 to 14 inches, there are a lot of them making the action steady.

Davis Lake is where were fishing today. But first, as we were traveling on Hwy 89 out of Truckee we soon learned the highway was a solid ice. After a little thrill with the truck and boat going sideways we decided to slow down and take our time. We arrived at the Honker Cove parking lot, I knew it was not going to an easy launch. We found about 3 inches of snow with solid ice under it. Knowing, I was going to need chains to get up the ramp, I decided to install them in the upper parking lot rather than on the ramp. As I was installing the chains I asked my son-in-law to walk down and check the ramp. Upon returning, he told me, “the whole cove was solid ice”. I was even more disappointed and broke the news to our clients. We decided to run over to Mallards Cove and check that ramp. We found a lot less snow and open water at the ramp. With chains still installed we were able to get the boat in the water without much of a problem.

We started trolling straight out in front of the ramp and headed towards the big island. About half hour without a hit, I was wondering if it was just going to be one of those days. Once we got into a little deeper water I started marking fish just off the bottom at 30 feet. The water temperature was 37 degrees on the surface so I dropped a probe to see what the temperature was at 30 feet. The result was 38 degrees at 30 feet of water, one degree difference is a all. I started targeting the fish on the bottom using the downriggers and in no time we were hooked up. Our clients today were Tom Gore of Healdsburg and Geoff Eisenberg of San Francisco who landed his first fish ever, a nice 16 inch rainbow. I was glad we were using our new Lamiglas kokanee rods with P-Line 6 lb. CXX, it made that 16 inch fish feel much bigger then it was. From that point on we put 15 nice rainbows in the boat in two and a half hours. We used several different lures such as a Shasta Tackle Red/Gold Humdingers and Needlefish but they seemed to want the smallest Dick Night spoon in Copper/Pink slathered with Pro-Cure Garlic Plus. The weather ran the gamut today from sun to snow flurries. After learning this was Geoff first fish ever and we ended up with limits of nice rainbows, it made all the extra effort getting the boat in the water well worth it.

We went out today with our client Steve Mothersell in his Rogue Jet, he wanted me to show him how some of his equipment works. We launched at the spillway ramp around 6:30 AM. We didnt get 50 yards from the ramp and I was showing Steve what the action of a Sling Blade should look like when we hooked about a 14″ Coho, our lure wasnt 10 from the boat. We knew then it was going to be a hot bite. Needless to say, we hooked fish non stop. We put 10 Cohos in the ice chest for table fare with the biggest going about 16.5″. All these fish were stuffed with pound smelt. We hooked all our fish in the top 10 of water on 6″ UV Glow Sling Blades and white Hoochies with Pro Cure Anchovy scent. These fish are growing fast and Oroville will only get better in the weeks to come.

https://fishtightlines.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Tightlines-logo-2014-silver-2.png00James Netzelhttps://fishtightlines.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Tightlines-logo-2014-silver-2.pngJames Netzel2012-04-20 21:13:192012-04-20 21:13:19Back on the Water

We left the ramp just before sun up and headed back to the area that has been producing for us. We put three StingFish in at depths of 15, 20 and 25 feet. We trolled for a couple hours without any action. The ice was starting to appear in areas again this morning, Im was glad I re-spooled my reels with 17 lb. P-Line CXX as we made our way through small areas of ice. Just after 8:00 AM two rods released from the downriggers. I knew we must have hit bottom because we had moved into some shallower water. It didnt take long to discover to my surprise we had a double. I was in disbelief when we landed a 14 and 13 lb. Mackinaw. Both fish were released after some quick photos. About 30 minutes later we landed another Mack that went around 4 pounds which was also released. We spent the next hour or so working the same area but the bite was off. At 11:00 AM sharp the famous Stampede wind came up to the point it was miserable. We decided to call it a day. The water temp is running around 37 degrees.

We launched just shortly after sunrise at the Cedar Stock Resort and headed to the Papoose Arm. We dropped our rigs, which consisted of White Hoochies coated with Pro-Cure “Bloody Tuna” gel as well as the New Water Soluble “Bloody Tuna” teamed with UV Sling Blades. The water tempetature on the surface was 45.6 degrees, and after dropping a “Fish Hawk” probe down to 70 feet of water, the temp did not change a full degree. We made quite a few runs up this arm and netted 5 fish up to 4 pounds, we lost another 6 at the boat. Most of the fish hit between 60 and 75 feet of water and seemed to be scattered throughout at different depths.

We were on our way to Trinity Lake and we decided to stop at Whiskeytown this afternoon. We launched at the Oak Bottom Ramp and headed out about five hundred yards. We worked the coves and rock piles pulling a variety of Cripplures and Humdingers down to fifteen feet. A few rainbows to twelve inches were hooked on these rigs before switching over to orange and gold F-7 Rapalas which were smeared with Pro-Cure Garlic Plus. We hooked a few more rainbows about the same size. The water temp was 45 degrees. We ended up fishing for only an hour and a half before heading to Trinity Lake.

We had such a great day Saturday on Trinity Lake we thought we would give Shasta Lake a try today. We launched at Jones Valley about 9 AM. Started fishing inside the cove of Jones Valley, as soon as all four lines were in the water we got a hit. A few small rainbows and then we started getting into some nice rainbows up to 18 inches. We were trolling Captain America & Orange/Gold Humdingers topped with Pro-Cure Garlic Plus. Another setup was an Orange Cripplure, which brought in a few nice rainbows all coming from 10 to 25 feet. The water temperature is about 50 degrees. For the middle of January the weather is beautiful, another great day on the water

After a 3 ½ drive we arrived at Trinity Lake Launch Ramp, which looked like a ice skating rink due to the ice. After launching we headed toward the dam and started trolling just outside of Papoose Arm. After about and hour into fishing, we weren’t having much luck. We headed up the Papoose Arm where we spotted bait suspended at 50 to 70 feet. We dropped a couple of lines to 60 feet and immediately hooked up a nice 3 lb Salmon. From that point on it was non-stop action with Salmon coming from 60 feet. We ended the day with boating over 15 Salmon up to 4.75 and a half dozen small rainbows. The hot setup of the day was UV Sling Blade and a White Pee Wee Hoochie covered in Pro-Cure Bloody Tuna.